He who gets slapped opening

Release Date: 1924
by Thomas Gladysz and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (2011)

Seeking a change of pace from his already successful career as a Swedish director and actor, Victor Sjöström arrived in New York in January 1923 at the invitation of Goldwyn Pictures.

Sjöström’s intention was to study American production methods and to involve himself in a film or two. The Swede never thought to stay in America for very long.

By the spring of 1924, however, when notable actors, directors, and producers gathered for a celebration of the merger of Goldwyn with the Metro and Mayer companies, Sjöström was in the thick of things.

By then, he had anglicized his name to Seastrom and had directed Name the Man (1924), a popular and critically acclaimed film for Goldwyn. Admired by newly appointed MGM production head Irving Thalberg, Seastrom was chosen to direct the new company’s first film—a prestige production on which the studio’s fortun